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What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
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Bento Guessing - Piggies



Yum, just in time for lunch! Here’s another bento box from the batch of pics my mom sent to me. (What’s a bento box and why am I doing this? Click here.)

I have to admit, this bento box is adorable and it looks like it actually wasn’t that much work. The box shape is sooooo cute and it’s PINK!

The piggies are made from hard-boiled eggs, and then I think they soak the eggs in soy sauce for an hour or so to give it that brownish color on the surface of the egg white. I’m pretty sure the ears and legs are just mushroom pieces, but I’m not sure how they did the snout.

I like that this bento has lots of little veggies in it and a slice of kiwi. :) And that orange and white flowerlike thingy I’m pretty sure is bought, not homemade. It looks like the sweet bean paste “cakes” we used to get for Japanese holidays.

I think this would have been cute but morbid if they included some marinated grilled pork (char siu) in the box. :)
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